Thought Leadership

10 Apr 2020

Dr Vikram Patel, Pershing Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, delivering the keynote address at Leading Minds 2019 conference at UNICEF Innocenti in Florence, Italy.

At the same time, technology presents unprecedented opportunities for breaking longstanding barriers and bottlenecks. Research and evidence on children and young people are more accessible to policy makers than ever before. To adapt to change and harness the benefits of enhanced knowledge, technology and prosperity, UNICEF Innocenti will focus increasingly on convening and creating shared value partnerships to accelerate the pace of change for children.

Leading Minds Conferences

In 2019 the inaugural Leading Minds conference brought together the world’s leading thinkers, scientists, innovators and young people, to discuss new evidence and identify bold answers on child and adolescent mental health. Each year a high-level Leading Minds conference will convene in Florence a specific deep dive into a core theme selected as one of the most pressing issues facing the future of childhood. Realizing this purpose will take full advantage of latest technologies and convene across a spectrum of formats and media. In 2020 Leading Minds Online – a series of virtual seminars – will utilize the same blend of convening as it did in person to connect, listen and share, and explore recommendations and solutions on the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on children.

UNICEF Innocenti Film Festival

Thought leadership in the 21st Century must range beyond science and government to include the world of fine art and culture. World cinema is one of the most powerful and popular arenas for translating knowledge into connection and action. The UNICEF Innocenti Film Festival, inaugurated in Florence in 2019, demonstrated how global film narratives on childhood could be the catalyst for new awareness and linkages for children. With the first edition attracting 1200 film submissions from more than 100 countries, UIFF will resume in 2021 as a regular fixture on the international film festival circuit in collaboration with the Region of Tuscany.

The Future of Childhood

We will engage the world’s leading minds in in-depth, one-on-one dialogue and produce a regularly appearing podcast called The Future of Childhood.

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Fellowships

Each year young scholars and researchers, particularly from the global south, will be selected to spend a period of months at UNICEF Innocenti to pursue an area of research interest on child rights.

Publications

Publication

Leading Minds Online Yearbook 2020

Leading Minds Online, like many good things, was born out of necessity. After a successful inaugural Leading Minds Conference at UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti in Florence, Italy in November 2019, the office’s convening team began 2020 gearing up for the second annual conference. The COVID pandemic that began in late 2019 put a stop to that. So we took our convening online, convinced that the philosophy that underpinned the Leading Minds convening in 2019 - to bring experts from all walks of life – young people, academics, practitioners, policymakers, businesses, the media, civil society and UNICEF’s own expert staff – around the current and next-generation challenges and opportunities for children could be just as relevant online as it is in person. Hence Leading Minds Online was born on 6 May 2020, with our first webcast series focused on experts' opinions on the implications of COVID-19 on children’s lives and futures. This yearbook summarizes their contributions to each of the webcasts and highlights the recommendations of each virtual event.

Read the publication